Saturday, April 23, 2011

Eyebrows.

Eyebrows now signify to me the busyness of life.

What sort of ridiculous statement is that? I'm smiling to myself as it type what sounds like nonsense.

One of my pet peeves used to be unplucked eyebrows. On other people. Horrible, I know. My inner dialogue would chatter away about it "why don't they just take the time to take care of that each day?!" Icky confession. I mean really, how petty could I be to spend my time examining someone else's eyebrows? I suppose we all have those inner dialogues that we wouldn't really want to share. Blech.

Now this previous pet peeve makes me laugh. Because I will look in the mirror and see that my eyebrows are going nuts. And I will think "wasn't it yesterday that I took care of this?!?" and then I realize that it must have been last week. Last week! Shocking to the previous eyebrow snob.

Now I get it. Time is a commodity that can run out oh so quickly. And eyebrows just don't really matter that much. There is spit up. Diapers. Getting out the door on time for school. Colds and flus and sniffles. Dinner to make. Sandwiches to make. Marker to wipe off of the white table. Floors to mop so the baby doesn't ingest an unhealthy amount of dog hair. Doctors appointments. Hugs and smuggles. Life!

I promise you, I will never again examine or judge your eyebrows. I probably won't even notice them! I will see your smile, your heart, your spirit.

Why oh why do we waste so much time judging everyone around us? We all do it. In little ways, in big ways, in ways we don't realize. Something they are wearing. A feature to pick at about their physical appearance. Maybe they are dirty, clean, punk-rock, polished, tattooed, scarred. Maybe we don't like their glasses, their belt, their hair...I don't know. We can pick at anything. It's disgusting! I don't want those thoughts in my head! Who cares about appearance? What does it matter? Each one of us is created by the Loving hands of the greatest creator. Gently fashioned, shaped, planned. Infused with the personality and uniqueness that He wanted us to have.

Jesus loves us as a whole. You are beautiful. Period. Not because of some nice feature of yours or well executed highlighting job on your hair. You. Are. Beautiful.

We are beautiful. Warts and all. Flawed, every one of us. So flawed. Why do we focus on the flaws? Let's spend this resurrection weekend with resurrected vision, eyes like Christ's, wearing glasses of pure love. Pure acceptance. Grace.

Lord, help me to see like Jesus. Not to see others by the pieces of who they are, but the wholeness of their spirit, the wholeness of who they are.